Replacing Tornado Foosball Men

If you own a Tornado Foosball table long enough, eventually you’re going to crack or break one of your Foosball men. Luckily it isn’t that hard to replace the men, provided you have the right tools to do it.

Removing the Broken Foosball Man

The men are held in place by roll pins on Tornado Tables. Unfortunately these pins don’t screw or bolt in place, they’re hammered into place with a special tool. That tool is available through my Amazon affiliate link below:

Without this tool, it will be much harder. With this tool, you can punch out the old roll pin from the man. When you do this, you have to make sure that you brace the rod under the man with a piece of wood so you don’t bend the rod when you’re doing it. With the wood in place and the tool inserted in the pin, you can then gently hammer out the roll pin.

I made a video below to try and show how it’s done:

Replacing the Broken Foosball Man

Now is where you’re going to come to the realization that in order to replace one man, you have to remove all the men on the rod. This is especially painful on the center rods that have 5 men to remove. One thing also to note is that the foot on some of the newer players is slightly different than the older players. I believe that when they came out with the new Tornado Classic, Sport, Elite, and T-3000 line they redesigned the foot slightly for better play.

If you’re replacing this man on a table that doesn’t have counter-balanced men, it might be a good idea to look into doing this since you have to remove all the men on that rod anyways. Plus it’s not a very expensive upgrade.

Once you have all the men removed and all the new men slid on, it’s time to reinstall them with roll pins. To do this, you’ll need the same wood block underneath the rod as before, along with the roll pin punch and a hammer. Get the man aligned with the hole in the rod and hit the pin into the man gently until it is flush with the front. Repeat this with all the other men.

Growing up I was a huge player of arcade, PC, and console games. Now that I'm older, I've gravitated towards pinball, bubble hockey, online video games, and more. I built this website to try and help out the new person to different aspects of the game room, including options he may not have even considered. Hopefully you find it helpful, and if there's anything you need don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you for visiting my website, I appreciate your support!